In the hospital setting, mobile radiographic exams are performed on patients incapable of being moved or difficult to move. Also, in tertiary care medical centers, mobile radiographic exams represent a significant percentage of the radiographic exams performed.
When a portable digital detector is used in the mobile radiology (RAD) clinical environments, it is critical that the system be reliable and available to the user (i.e. maximization of uptime). Due to the harsh environment in which this type of detector is used, (detector being dropped, banged against objects, etc.) it is inevitable that the detector may need to be replaced on a clinical site. It is desirable that the time to replace the detector and return the system back to the customer be as short as possible. With current remote diagnostic capabilities, it is possible to determine which component has failed and to provide the proper part to the site.
If, however, once the detector has been replaced, a long configuration, calibration process is required, as is often the case, time for the user to receive the unit and restart patient procedures may be significantly impacted. As the cost of the system requires high productivity and low downtime, it is critical to reduce or eliminate this effort.
In addition, if any change to the detector design occurs during production it would be highly beneficial for the detector itself to include any configuration parameters that would be affected without requiring the customer to reload new software on the system prior to using the detector.
Also, if multiple detectors are available to the customer and the detector is capable of quickly switching through wireless or quick disconnect connections, the capability quickly to configure the system to work optimally with that detector may add to time saving.
The disadvantages associated with current, portable digital detectors for mobile radiography units have made it apparent that a new technique for installing detectors and configuring portable detector information would be beneficial. The present invention is directed to these ends.